Burke's Lower School math program supports the school's mission to educate, encourage, and empower girls. Students develop computational fluency (accuracy, efficiency, and flexibility) during their Lower School years by exploring and experimenting with numbers. They also develop the confidence and skills needed to explore different strategies for solving problems and to explain their thinking to others. The ultimate goal is to create mathematically courageous girls who persevere in solving any math problem they come across.

Math strands include the following: numbers, geometry, measurement, data and probability, and patterns. Each curriculum unit focuses on an area of content in depth, providing time for students to develop and practice ideas across a variety of activities and contexts that build on each other.

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Math activities are based on grade level benchmarks and implemented using TERC and supplemental materials. The math program emphasizes exploration and hands on activities using manipulatives. Math strands include the following: numbers, geometry, measurement, data and probability, and patterns. Each curriculum unit focuses on an area of content in depth, providing time for students to develop and practice ideas across a variety of activities and contexts that build on each other.

Our first-grade math program, TERC Investigations, covers skills including counting and understanding numbers to 100, number patterns, whole number computation to twenty, solving simple number stories, measurement with rulers, tape measures, balances, and thermometers. Other skills include telling time to the half-hour, counting small groups of coins, exploring geometrical shapes, and recording data with simple graphs and tallies. Concepts are introduced and reinforced through sharing and discussion, hands-on projects, and small group games and activities. In addition, there are daily calendar activities and seasonal studies drawn from a variety of other sources, which enrich and expand on the skills introduced throughout the year.

In second grade mathematics, we use the TERC Investigations program. Second grade math emphasizes problem solving in the following areas. These areas are explored in whole class and small group activities, guided practice, and content rich games.

Numbers and Operations: Counting, reading, and writing numbers; place value of whole numbers; fractions. Fluency with addition and subtraction.

Geometry: Describing, identifying, comparing, and sorting features of two- and three-dimensional shapes and classifying polygons. Area measurement using arrays.

Measurement: Using varied tools and methods to measure time, temperature, length, and weight; exchanging money amounts and using money as a tool for developing fluency with numbers.

Algebra, Patterns, and Functions: Using tables and graphs. Recognizing and extending patterns and sequences.

Third-grade mathematics emphasizes computational fluency and problem solving in the following areas. These areas are explored in whole class and small group activities, guided practice, and content-rich games.

The goals and guiding principles of the Investigations in Number, Data and Space (aka TERC) are:

Support students to make sense of mathematics and learn that they can be mathematical thinkers.

Focus on computational fluency with whole numbers.

Provide substantive work in important areas of mathematics – rational numbers, geometry, measurement, data, and early algebra and connections among them.

Emphasize reasoning about mathematical ideas.

Engage the range of learners in understanding mathematics.

Students come to school with innate knowledge and ideas about numbers, shapes, measurements, patterns and data. The Investigations program provides an environment that stresses making sense of the mathematical knowledge and ideas they already have and enables the students to extend this knowledge to mathematics they have not yet encountered. All mathematical content, computational fluency, and skill is grounded in meaning. Students learn that they are capable of having mathematical ideas, applying what they know to new situations and thinking and reasoning about unfamiliar problems.

The units in the fourth grade are: Factors, Multiples and Arrays; Describing the Shape and of the Data; Multiple Towers and Division Stories; Size, Shape and Symmetry; Landmarks and Large Numbers; Fraction Cards and Decimal Squares; Moving Between Solids and Silhouettes; How Many Packages? How Many Groups?; Penny Jars and Plant Growth.

In addition to Investigations, we use DynaMath, a math magazine, which follows the NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) Standards. It is filled with high-interest, relevant activities.

Ongoing review throughout the year, test preparation and regular assessment are invaluable tools to help us evaluate your daughter’s progress.

Simone Wolk

Burke's mission is to educate, encourage and empower girls. Our school combines academic excellence with an appreciation for childhood so that students thrive as learners, develop a strong sense of self, contribute to community, and fulfill their potential, now and throughout life.